Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Over the last thirty plus years as an insurance agent/broker in Oklahoma, far and away the single most often asked question is “what should I do when I rent a car?” The question might also be “should I purchase the coverage that Hertz (or National or Avis) will offers and wants me to buy?” Most often that question is followed by “will my insurance policy cover it (the rental unit)?”

What options does one have when she or he walks up to the rental counter after a long flight? “What should I do?”

Have you ever been in that situation and you wished you had done some planning or at least asked your agent ahead of time?

If you read this, in and all of the subsequent installments, hopefully you’ll have a better and well-informed idea of what to expect.

The way it works appears to be a choice of one or more of six options, which are:

purchase the rental car coverage offered to you

use your Personal Auto Policy (PAP) if your trip is for pleasure

use your Business Auto Policy if your trip is in some way tied to your job work-related

use with your Personal or Commercial Umbrella Liability policy

pay with a credit card

pay with cash…YOUR cash.

In future posts, we’ll each of these in much more detail as it relates to liability: you hurt someone or damage their property and you are at fault or you are contractually responsible for damage to the rental car. However, for now, this is…